Miami Rabbis Issue Warning Against ‘commercialization’ of Religion

June 29, 1962

MIAMI (Jun. 28)

The Greater Miami Rabbinical Association served advance notice today on Miami Jewry that it vigorously opposed any plans “to commercialize religion and in particular using the High Holiday services for financial profit and personal benefit.”

The statement said the rabbis understood the need for fund-raising activities by established congregations and the fact that some seasons of the Jewish religious year “naturally lend themselves more advantageously to the pledging or collection of dues, fees and other financial commitments.”

However, the rabbis said, arrangements for services in public halls and hotels “and the advertisement of such services in a commercial fashion” was quite a different matter. They also condemned the arrangement of High Holiday services, even by existing congregations, “in areas outside their own geographic location for the purpose of fundraising and attraction of new members and contributors.”